Things to Come

L'Avenir

Synopsis

Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. One day, Nathalie’s husband announces he is leaving her for another woman.

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I loved watching Isabelle Huppert in this film. I don't think I would have liked it at all without her! Things To Come has more nuance than substance, but I could watch Isabelle stare into space forever. She is up on top of my list of favorite actors of all time, along with Paul Newman, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Gabin and Lon Chaney. These are the kind of actors who make what might have been a so-so film a great one!

Another great film with Isabelle Huppert, the cinema's finest actor. The first film I've seen by Mia Hansen Love. Got to watch her work now. A nice movie about getting old and adjusting to a changing world.

A film where nothing happens, and everything happens. An unhurried look at the minutiae of gradual changes that come with advancing age - relationships, work, children - while letting its characters spew forth on the purpose of philosophy in the modern age: it's macro vs. micro. Cat metaphors abound (plus ça change), and Huppert is both stoic and vulnerable.

An excellent return to form and the high bar set by her first film The Father of My Children. Huppert is indeed fantastic to watch here and although half of French acting just seems to be about moving quickly she brings such a presence and depth of character that it's impossible not to feel for her. 4 stars

In which Mia Hansen-Love, having made one film about young romance and one about middle age, sets her sights on growing old and becoming obsolete. And who better to stare down the obsolescence of old age with an eye-roll and a grin than Isabelle Huppert? It has its worldly moments, but I wonder if Hansen-Love will ever be able to transcend this strain of French cinema. For now, she's one of its better practitioners.

I really liked this movie. People talk about the movie being only about Huppert, but essentially, what I enjoyed the most was the voyage of her character onto freedom. Besides that, there are some marvelous shots and they even discuss Zizek.

Congrats to Mia Hansen-Løve for giving Isabelle Huppert the exquisite role of an incredibly smart, strong and confident middle-aged philosophy teacher/wife/mother/daughter who owns a black cat and actually acts like a real fierce woman and not an weird video-games business lady. I thought tangible emotions were a little forgotten in all the music of "Eden", but here they're on full display... in an understated way.

A near-masterpiece that rarely puts a foot wrong, determined that there still ought to be a popular adult cinema that matters. In a sense it is simply an illustration of a non-codependent way of being a woman in the world, and our movie houses aren't exactly teeming w/ such demonstrations. It is about a way of being. It is also itself a way of being, exhibiting this most stridently in the masterful way it is cut.